Bouquets and Brickbats: Hawken Academic Challenge team headed to nationals

BOUQUETS: To the team of scholars from Hawken Middle School in Lyndhurst that won the 2014 Ohio Regional Academic Challenge Tournament and earned a chance to compete for national honors.
After seven hours of competition and 10 hard-fought matches, Hawken Middle School’s Team A emerged victorious during the tournament on Feb. 1 at John Carroll University. With the win, the team received an invitation to the national tournament in Washington, D.C., in June.
Team A is made up of captain and Chagrin Falls resident Anderson Clyde, Sanjay Vallabhaneni of Aurora, Jack Seasholtz of Pepper Pike and Jack Gole of Painesville.
Here’s hoping that the team will bring home a national championship in June.

BOUQUETS: To Nicole Kovach of Auburn Township, for recently completing her Girl Scout Gold Award by creating a dog agility course at the Geauga County Dog Shelter in Chardon.
From research to planning and fundraising to construction, Nicole’s project encompassed skills she learned through her journey as a Girl Scout.
“Some of the equipment I was able to build for the dogs were two bar jumps, weave poles, an a-frame, cavalettis (hurdle) and a dog ladder,” she said. “I was also able to purchase a dog tunnel.”
The Gold Award is the highest honor that a Girl Scout may earn.
We congratulate her on completing a worthwhile project and garnering a prestigious award.

BRICKBATS: To Raymond Miller, who was sentenced Thursday to a minimum three years in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Parkman Township after watching porn.
Miller, 18, of Parkman Township, previously pleaded guilty in Geauga County Common Pleas Court to rape.
The incident occurred June 7. Miller knew the victim from the neighborhood and the rape occurred in a shed in a wooded area.
Geauga County Public Defender R. Robert Umholtz called Miller, who is Amish, “an extremely naive person, both sexually and socially.”
Umholtz said Miller and his friends had been watching porn before the incident, which may have given him an unrealistic view of sex.
“He is going to have a particularly tough time in prison coming from a radically different culture,” Umholtz said.
Judge Forrest Burt originally wanted to sentence Miller to community control rather than prison. But since he must register as a sex offender for life, it wasn’t a possibility.
The judge said he fears what will happen to Miller behind bars because of his small size and Amish beliefs.
“I have to give you prison,” the judge said. “I don’t want to, but I have to.”
So Miller has no choice but to face the consequences of committing rape.